N.B. woman's remains flown from England to Halifax
Last Updated: Saturday, November 14, 2009 | 7:36 PM AT
CBC News
The coffin containing the remains of Gladys Fowler weighs 210 kilograms because it is lined with lead, which was fashionable when she died. (CBC)The remains of a young New Brunswick woman who died in England more than 90 years ago were flown into Halifax on Saturday.
Gladys Winifred Fowler will finally be buried near her childhood home in Hammondvale, N.B., on Sunday.
The coffin containing the body of 18-year-old Fowler lay unnoticed in a catacomb in London until its discovery earlier this year.
On Saturday, 10 men with the 8th Canadian Hussars military unit from New Brunswick waited outside the Halifax airport's arrivals gate to greet the people who accompanied Fowler's remains.
Portrait of Gladys Winifred Fowler as a child. (Courtesy of Jane Fowler Morse)Fowler's father, New Brunswick MP George Fowler, served in the First World War, which is why Fowler was in England when she died of heart problems in 1917.
It's not known why Fowler's body remained in a crypt at the Kensal Green Cemetery in England for almost a century. Her body was only identified this spring inside a packing crate stored in the catacomb.
Once the remains cleared customs, they were to be transported by hearse to Sussex, N.B., where a private funeral will be held Sunday at 1 p.m.
Fowler's niece and nephew, who live in the United States, are expected to attend the service.
A public interment is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Most of Fowler's immediate family is already buried at the Hammondvale cemetery, where a granite monument is already inscribed with Fowler's name.
